The Never Ending Steps of Flower Mountain

Off to an early start this morning to avoid the hordes of other tourists visiting Mount Hua (Flower Mountain). With the hotel breakfast packed to-go, we left Xi'an at 730a for the 2.5 hour drive. Aside from tourism, the Xi'an region is characterized by its coal industry. The drive to Flower Mountain reflected that. We drove through poor, working towns and passed by the occasional coal mill. Saw something that looked like a nuclear cooling stack being constructed along the way.

Upon arrival at Flower Mountain, we took an official park bus to the base of the mountain and cable cars towards the top. Carl and Joanne, whom are deathly afraid of heights, didn't love the ride. The weather was cool and views were sick. Clouds wrapped the mountain tops and the sun fought through the passing clouds.

Flower Mountain is important in Chinese history and one of the Five Great Mountains (Taoism). The common saying is that every Chinese person should visit all five mountains. The second steepest, Flower Mountain has five peaks: Central, North, South, East, and West. The cable car only takes you so far up. The trek from the cable car drop off to the nearest peak, North, required navigating steep steps. We bought gloves at the mountain base as to not dirty our hands from the rusting stair rails and chains. The hike up was intense all throughout. Long stair stretches left me winded with my quads and calf muscles on fire. Nature's stairmaster was making for a good workout! People of all ages (and fitness level) were making the hike. I thought we were making excellent pace, often passing people by.

The trail was marked with engraved locks affixed to the chains symbolizing good luck and good fortune. Not surprisingly the nicest vantage points had the most chains.

All seven of us made it to the North and Central peaks. Doug, Jason, and I decided to continue forward while the others headed back down. Over the next 3 hours, the three of us raced through the other peaks. Thank goodness we were all in good shape! During our stop at the South (highest of the 5) peak, Jason and I paid admission to go onto a plank. Wearing harnesses, we descended steps and walked along wooden planks placed onto the mountain face. Pretty cool. I wasn't too scared because I was confident in the engineering and safety precautions. If anything, I was scared to use Jason's camera and to whip out my iPhone for fear of dropping it.

We missed our target time by 20min or so. We would have made it had it not been for slow people clogging the paths along the way. Ironically, the toughest part for me was getting down. My knees were screaming after all those steps down!

After the exhausting hike, we returned to Xi'an to dine at the Muslim Quarter (see pics from prior post). We had good intentions of hitting a local bar, but everyone was tired to the bone and called it a night.